Abstract

Background

Encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV) can infect a variety of animal species and humans.
Although the EMCV infection is known to induce autophagy to promote its replication
in host cells, the viral proteins that are responsible for inducing autophagy are
unknown.

Methods

The recombinant plasmids that were expressing the EMCV proteins were constructed to
analyze the role of each protein in the induction of autophagy. Autophagy inductions
by the EMCV proteins in BHK-21 cells were investigated by confocal microscopy, Western
blotting and transmission electron microscopy. ER stress in BHK-21 cells was examined
by detecting the marker molecules using western blotting and luciferase assays.

Results

This study presents the first demonstration that the nonstructural proteins 2C or
3D of EMCV were involved in inducing autophagy in BHK-21 cells that were expressing
2C or 3D, and we found that inhibiting Beclin1 expression influenced this autophagy
induction process. Next, 2C and 3D were shown to be involved in inducing autophagy
by activating the ER stress pathway. Finally, EMCV 2C or 3D were demonstrated to regulate
the proteins associated with PERK and ATF6alpha pathway.